Lost in Translation
by thatfantasyworldofmine
Summary: The TARDIS crashes, the lights go out, and for some reason the Doctor isn't sounding quite right…


"What is it?" Rose yelled above the din of the creaking TARDIS, clinging to the guard rail and laughing as the Doctor staggered around the console, hitting a button repeatedly with his rubber mallet.

"Solar storm," he yelled back, holding on as the ship bucked violently. As soon as the latest shudder was over, he was back at the controls, attempting to steady the TARDIS. "Receivers were offline while I looked at them, she didn't see these winds coming - ooof!" The Doctor was thrown back into Rose, breaking Rose's grip on the guard rail as the console room tossed them both to the floor.

Spots appeared briefly in front of Rose's eyes as her head hit the grates, and she lay still, stunned. Then the Doctor wrenched her up, cried, "Hold on!" in her ear and went back to trying to save his beloved ship. The TARDIS jerked and rolled; Rose clung to the guard rail like it was her lifeline - which, in a way, it was - and fought the overwhelming urge to cover her ears against the sound of screaming metal. She trusted the Doctor completely, and knew the TARDIS would never willingly hurt them, but fear clawed at her as the shuddering became worse and the Doctor's expression grew more frantic.

"Doctor!" she yelled, arms aching from hanging onto the rail. "What's goin' on?" He didn't answer, except for a wordless frustrated yell at something he read on the monitor, then going back to the controls once more. Rose prepared herself to jump over to him, but then the lights went out. All of them, completely. The console room was bathed in darkness and the shrieking of metal fighting the elements suddenly became more terrifying than ever. "Doctor!"

"Hold on!" came his voice from the darkness; Rose started to feel desperate. She could make it, couldn't she? He was only a few steps away, and despite the fact she was twenty years old (she didn't actually know, but she must be by now), the dark made everything ten times scarier. She could feel things on her skin, imagining terrible things happening to the Doctor and she couldn't see through the smothering black. It was bearing in on her, it was stifling, suffocating, drowning her in black.

Rose made up her mind and loosened her grip slightly; as if she knew, the TARDIS gave an almighty crash and rolled, sending Rose flying, hurtling through the darkness. Her head met something hard, pain exploded throughout her skull, and then nothing.

xXxXx

The Doctor awoke with a start; or had he awoken? All he could see was black, though slight shapes were distinguishable. Debris was scattered around him and on top of him. His head throbbed; that's right, he'd been knocked out. The solar storm, the TARDIS… Rose! The Doctor then recognised the weight on top of him; it wasn't debris as he'd thought, but in fact his unconscious companion. He groped blindly for her neck, running his hands lightly over her form until he found it just beside his ribcage. _Please Rassilon, don't let her neck be broken…_ She was on her back, slumped over him facing the ceiling, her head suspended over his side. With slightly trembling fingers, he tenderly felt her neck until he found a pulse and sighed with relief. It was strong; she was alive, and she would live.

After a little more exploration to ensure no vital bones were seriously damaged, the Doctor gently slid from beneath Rose's limp form. Feeling round a little more he discovered injuries: two broken ribs, a broken wrist, and a lump rising on her forehead. Shaking his head at his own stupidity at letting this happen, the Doctor moved to pick her up and take her to the infirmary, but a whimper escaped her when he did so. The Doctor froze as he heard her heartbeat escalate and her breathing get quicker and shallower; Rose was coming to.

"Rose, it's alright, I'm right here," he said, kneeling beside her and resting his hands on her shoulders, ready to stop her moving should she try. "Don't move, you've broken a few ribs and your arm, best to just stay still 'til I can get the lights back on."

"Doctor…" Rose managed, not sure if the hands holding her down was really him or if the agony in her arm and chest was making her hear things wrong. It sounded like his voice but the language was wrong, the person was speaking something that most definitely wasn't English. Tears stung her eyes and tracked down her cheeks as the pain grew almost unbearable; Rose wished she'd just pass out again. The voice continued to talk, murmuring soothingly in long legato words that seemed to wrap around each other and compliment the sounds. She couldn't distinguish the different sentences or words, assuming there _were_ sentences and words. Surely she was dreaming? The TARDIS would translate for her, otherwise…

Rose moved her good arm towards the sound then cried out as the action strained her broken ribs. The pain left her gasping and nearly sobbing, and even that action hurt as well. The voice - it _sounded_ like the Doctor, but she couldn't be sure - started to sound agitated, and a hand moved up to hold her cheek in its palm. Rose flinched, trying to stop crying at the thudding pain in her chest and her wrist and not liking the foreign feel of the hand. It moved up to her temple, back to speaking softly now in the loopy, almost musical language, and Rose felt the burning pain in her injuries slowly dull down, then fade entirely.

She was stunned into silence; had he just healed her? She moved her wrist experimentally; the voice suddenly shouted and a hand came down quickly on hers, another on her shoulder, holding her still.

"Doctor?" Rose asked uncertainly, having got her voice back. "What's going on?"

The voice sighed exasperatedly, then Rose felt the arm slide underneath her shoulders and help her sit up. He - whoever _he_ was - started to talk again and Rose felt like thumping the ground in frustration as tears rose in her eyes. She stretched out a hand blindly towards the voice and it landed on a cheek. A cheek that, as she explored it, Rose realised she recognised.

"Doctor, it is you!" she exclaimed, and the voice paused. Rose felt like sobbing. "I can't understand you, I dunno what you're saying," she cried, feeling his face as much as she could with one hand, reinforcing the fact that it was him, her Doctor that had been beside her this whole time. Her fingers climbed into his hair and she smiled through her tears; that, if nothing else, was definitely him.

"This better?" he asked slowly, and Rose let out a huge breath as she nodded.

"Yes," she sighed, sagging forwards with relief, resting her head on his shoulder. His arm curled around her shoulders, holding her as tight as he dared with her broken ribs. Rose finally felt safe, despite the still pitch-black console room and her confusion. "Doctor, what was that?"

There was a pause. "We crashed."

Annoyance sparked in Rose. "Yeah, I know that part, I meant after! Why were you talking in a different language? Why's the TARDIS not translating anymore? Oh…" She realised as soon as she'd said it. "You were talkin' your language. Your normal one. Not English. And the TARDIS usually translates for you… _oh_." Everything made sense, and she could feel him nodding ruefully.

"I don't speak English a lot," he said slowly. "Not for seven or eight generations - no, wait. _Re_generations."

Rose caught on and spoke a bit slower. "So the TARDIS is hurt, and she's not translating?"

The Doctor nodded again after processing Rose's words, and rubbed his head. He really should practice more, but honestly, of all the languages he'd ever encountered, English was a real headache. _So many contradictions._ The whack he'd received on his head when they crashed certainly wasn't helping his recall.

Rose spoke again and he translated in his head: _"So how did you make my chest an' my arm stop hurting?"_ He sighed; there wasn't time for his, nor did he have the patience. What he'd really done is install a telepathic block in the pain center of her brain, simply blocking the pain, not erasing it. Her injuries were still present and it was by no means a permanent solution, she just wouldn't feel them for a few hours. However there was no way he could explain all that without losing time to fix the lights, and getting a migraine in the process, so the Doctor mulled over his answer before replying.

"I'll explain later. Wait here. Don't move, you're still…" He floundered for the word. "Hurt."

Usually Rose wouldn't let him get away with so short an explanation, but she was quickly realising that English, or rather _speaking_ English more so than understanding, was not one of the Doctor's strong suits, so she let him be.

"Okay," she replied, and smiled as she felt a kiss pressed to her temple. The Doctor moved away, towards the console, she guessed, and Rose struggled not to chuckle as she listened to the Doctor's muttered foreign words. They sounded suspiciously like curse words, and as a shouted one accompanied a loud bang, Rose let out a giggle, feeling slightly guilty at laughing at him but unable to help herself.

There was silence for a moment, and then: "Glad I amuse you."

Rose chuckled again and remained where she was, listening to his movements. She closed her eyes and lay back, breathing slowly and shallowly now that she was aware her injuries were still present. She had almost fallen asleep to the sound of his uninterrupted muttering when he yelled something triumphantly, her eyes flew open in surprise and the TARDIS console room lit up. There was a brief moment of brightness, then the light faded to a soft orange glow.

Rose carefully sat up to find the Doctor grinning proudly at her. He started to explain, at full volume this time, then stopped and frowned as he realised she didn't understand a word he was saying.

She waved a hand. "Jus' keep going, I like the sound of it," she told him with an encouraging nod. He raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and started to talk again as he turned back to the console, fiddling with the wires underneath.

Rose examined the console room. One of the support arches had cracks splayed through it like a spider web, and several of the ceiling panels now surrounded her on the floor. A few of the circular things on the walls had shattered, littering the grates beneath them with glass. She was sitting just below the jumpseat, the actual seat about half a foot above her head. The hall leading into the rest of the TARDIS was dark, so she assumed the Doctor was trying to restore light to the rest of the ship.

Shifting slowly and keeping her right hand rested across her chest, out of harms way, Rose moved to lean against the lower guard rails and closed her eyes again, listening to the Doctor's voice.

xXxXx

Rose started awake when she felt a hand rub her arm and opened her eyes to find the Doctor kneeling in front of her.

"Hello," she smiled, stretching out a hand, then gasping as a sharp burst of pain sliced through her ribs. "Ow," she managed, tears stinging her eyes as she now realised the pain was slowly coming back to her torso and arm. The Doctor nodded sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, Rose, you have to move then I can carry you," he said bluntly, his concentration leaking through his voice. "I can't get you out from there."

Rose bit her lip; he was right, she was seated right beneath the jumpseat so there was no way the Doctor would be able to help her out. She would have to do this herself. She took a deep breath and gritted her teeth; _like a bandaid_, she told herself. Using her left hand for support and keeping her right injured one clutched to her breast, Rose slid out from under the seat, towards the Doctor in one quick motion. The pain that accompanied her action was so immense that it made the black swimming at the edge of her vision swarm in and drown her until she thought nothing more.

xXxXx

Once more, Rose drifted towards awareness, noting with some relief that there was no more pain in her chest or her arm. She opened her eyes and the lights were dimmed low enough so she could see but it didn't hurt her eyes. She smiled; the TARDIS must be alright again if she was reading what level of light was comfortable for her inhabitants. Sitting up, Rose found the Doctor next to her, head rested on the bed, pillowed by his arm, and snoring softly as he was sound asleep. This only reinforced the notion that the TARDIS had been fixed; Rose knew the Doctor cared for her but his ship would have taken precedent over her superficial injuries, especially if she was unconscious.

"Doctor." She shook him gently, wondering if he would still have to consciously speak English, or if that had been righted by the TARDIS as well.

He jerked away at her touch, the chair skidding back before he realised what woke him. He saw Rose looking at him with a startled expression and grinned happily.

"'Bout time you woke up, sleepyhead!" he told her, rising from the chair at the same time as she jumped off the bed and pulling her into a tight hug.

"All fixed then?" Rose asked, savouring the hug then pulling away, smiling at his perkiness. "Fluent in fake English again, I see!"

The Doctor nodded, a frown coming onto his face.

"I really need to practice more," he mused, almost to himself rather than Rose. Then his face brightened again. "You're alright then? No pain or anything? Shouldn't be, I fixed you up a few hours ago, though the soporific took longer to wear off than I thought. You humans, you really can sleep-"

"Doctor!" Rose interrupted exasperatedly, nudging him. She rolled her wrist experimentally for him to see, then poked at her rib cage with a finger. "I'm fine. And I think I know why you use the TARDIS to translate so much…"

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

Rose grinned cheekily and laughed. "'Cause you think too much for your mouth to keep up, otherwise!"

The Doctor mulled over her statement, and nodded. "Sounds about right to me," he agreed with a grin.

Taking her hand, he pulled her out the door and into the repaired console room, leading Rose right up to the console. He pointed to a small black button just behind the monitor. "I installed that just before."

"What does it do?"

A flash of vulnerability flitted across the Doctor's face for a moment, and then it was gone. "It turns off the translator. So you can… erm… teach me. Better English. If you want. I mean, I do have to practice, I suppose, so…"

Rose placed a hand on his arm and smiled softly at him. "I'd love to," she told him honestly with a nod. She reached up and with a smile, pressed the button once. "Let's get started!"


End file.
